There's a recipe in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking for Ginger-Amaranth Shortbread. I switched some of the sugar, added peanut butter, cut them into small square bites and covered them with a ginger icing. These are soft shortbreads, not very dry, and leave a buttery kiss on your tongue.

 Ginger Amaranth Shortbreads
Adapted from Heidi Swanson, Super Natural Cooking

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup amaranth flour
1 T ground ginger
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened/room temperature
1/3 cup sucanat
1/3 cup natural cane sugar
1 1/2 T low fat creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup (scant) chopped dried sugared ginger

Icing: 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 cup powdered sugar, and soy creamer

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flours, salt and ground ginger.

With a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the sugars, and the peanut butter. Continue to mix and add the dry ingredients. Fold in the chopped ginger. Knead the dough if necessary and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 35-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove dough from the refrigerator and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes or form 1/4" rounds and place onto parchment covered cookie sheet. Freeze the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes before placing into the oven to preserve desired shapes. Bake for 10 minutes more or less depending on the size of the cookie until slightly golden.

Remove and cool. Using a fork, mix together powdered sugar, and teaspoon of ground ginger. Adjust to taste, and spread on top of each cooled cookie. Let cookies rest on the sheet or cooling rack until the icing has hardened.       

 

Related to the previous post, as a side to the seaweed salad, I made sesame flatbread crackers. I've had this recipe in my binder for some time.  If you have the time, homemade crackers beat the packaged store brand crackers every time, hands down. 

I've been gradually moving further and further away from the white lily flour camp, incorporating different grains. Here I adapted Gourmet's recipe for Sesame Flatbread Crackers using rye and amaranth flours.  Regular all purpose flour is still needed to maintain the texture.  A rule of thumb I've adopted when substituting flours: start by substituting 1/3 and go from there.

Sesame Flatbread Crackers with Amaranth and Rye Flours
Adapted from Gourmet, May 2000

1 c amaranth flour, spooned and leveled
1 c white rye flour, spooned and leveled
1 c all purpose flour (I prefer the King Arthur brand)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c buttermilk (I used powder & water)
1 c sesame seeds (plus sesame seeds to sprinkle on top)
2 eggs  (I use an egg substitute)
1 1/2 T Agave nectar (you may use regular sugar and I'm sure honey would be an excellent subtle flavor combination)
1 T soy sauce

Whisk together flours and salt. Cut in butter. Make a well in the center and add buttermilk and 1 cup sesame seeds. Knead briefly in the bowl until a dough comes together.  Divide the dough into quarters or thirds, wrap each piece individually and place inside the refrigerator. Cool 15 mins.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your baking sheets, covering each cookie sheet with parchment paper. I prefer aluminum sheets, your baking time will need to be adjusted accordingly for your baking surface.

Whisk together eggs, agave nectar and soy sauce together in a small measuring cup. Set aside.  Set a small bag or bowl of sesame seeds next to it.

Remove one package of dough from the refrigerator. Dust parchment paper and rolling pin lightly with flour. Unwrap dough, roll out to 1/8 inch thickness or thinner onto parchment paper.  A tip: rolling cracker dough onto your parchment paper is an easier alternative than peeling individual crackers off your rolling surface. You can then pick the paper up and place it directly onto the baking sheet. Brush dough with egg mixture and cut into strips.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and place into the oven. Repeat with each package of dough in the refrigerator.

Bake 15-17 mins, rotating halfway through. Watch crackers during the last 5 mins of baking, as they will brown quickly.

Today is Mary Jo's birthday, and I've crossed my fingers to hope that she'll like these cookies. If not, I've played it a little safe and have dried fruit/nut friendship bars, ready to go as an alternative.

Instead of working with a recipe as a base and modifying it, I decided to go back to step 1, assess what spices, dried fruits, and flours I have in the pantry and see what happens.  I enjoy figs, have been baking with amaranth powder frequently, and like the taste of anise. Figs and anise are a common combination.  I had moist almond meal readily available, but it was left over from a successful first attempt at making my own almond milk. That's not something I have ready to use on a frequent basis, but a good way to use the leftover meal.

These are soft on the inside, dotted with figs, anise flavors, rolled in granulated sugar. Just sweet enough to eat another! If you try them, let me know!

Amaranth Fig Cookies with Anise

1 cup moist almond meal/flour
1/2 cup amaranth flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground anise seed
a sprinkling of whole anise seed

10-12 black mission figs, chopped finely
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

6 tablespoons softened butter
2/3 cup demerera raw sugar
3 drops of amaretto flavoring

Granulated sugar, for coating.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flours, baking soda, baking powder,  salt and spices together in a large bowl. Add the finely chopped figs to the flour and spices. In a separate small bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer. Make a small well in the batter and pour the creamed butter mixture into the dry batter. Knead, making sure all the flour has been absorbed. Roll batter into small 1" balls and coat in granulated sugar.

Place balls onto cookie sheet and gently flatten with a spoon or bottom of a small jar. Bake, rotating if necessary, 15 mins.

Yield: 3 dozen, 36 small, 1" round cookies.